A conventional cellular mobile communication system based on 3GPP LTE transmits a downlink control channel by assigning time-frequency resources to an area for transmitting downlink control information. In other words, the conventional cellular mobile communication system uses a method of transmitting control information using one to three OFDM symbols located in the beginning portion of each subframe.
However, due to Multi-user Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) technology in a heterogeneous network environment, control of interference between heterogeneous networks using Carrier Aggregation, frequent use of Multicast-Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) subframes, technology of transmitting and receiving Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP), etc., demands for larger capacity of a control channel are increasing.
Accordingly, there is a need for a new control channel design in order to meet the demands for larger capacity of the control channel.